Known naval power cables and underground jacketed cables suffer drawbacks when stripping of the outer jacket layers is required. For instance, in FIG. 1 of the drawings, a typical multi-conductor power cable is illustrated. In general, such prior art power cable 1 comprises a core conductor assembly 2 consisting of triplexed insulated conductors 3, a water blocking layer 4 extruded over the core conductor assembly, a non-uniform layer of binder tape 5 helically wound over the blocking layer, and a jacket layer 6 extruded over the binder tape, as shown.
In order to expose the insulated electrical conductors for spreading and connection to electrical equipment in cable spreading rooms, large lengths of water blocking and jacket material must be stripped away to freely expose the core conductor assembly. With such prior art power cable, removal of the water blocking and jacket material requires cutting each layer away bit by bit using sharp cutting tools, the nature of which poses great safety hazards to workers.
In addition to requiring arduous effort and numerous hours and sometimes a day or more to strip away the water blocking and jacket material, often workers wielding the sharp cutting tools inadvertently cut into the core conductor assembly, damaging the electrical insulation on the conductors. Frequently, these workers also injure themselves during such stripping operations. For example, workers can cut themselves with the sharp cutting tools. Also they are exposed to the risk of slipping and falling on rubber chips and shavings which fall to the floor during cable stripping operations.
Thus, there is a need in the art to provide improved tools and methods for stripping electrical cable without the accompanying shortcomings and drawbacks of the prior art.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a naval power cable which can be easily stripped of its water blocking material and outer jacket layer with a substantial reduction in stripping time and an added measure of safety.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a naval power cable, in which the water blocking material and outer jacket layer are tenaciously bonded together and can be easily cut without the use of sharp cutting tools so that large lengths of power cable can be quickly and safely stripped aboard a naval vessel, by simply peeling away at most a few integrally bonded strips of water blocking and jacket material.
Another object is to provide a specialized stripping tool adapted for use with underground primary distribution jacketed cables, and a simple method of stripping the outer, extruded polymer sheat jackets of such cables with the specialized stripping tool.
A further object is to provide a stripping tool specially adapted for use with isolated wires that integrally form a metallic shield for underground primary distribution jacketed cables.
A yet further object is to provide a method of using the stripping tool for safe, quick and easy removal of outer jacket material from underground primary distribution jacketed cables.
These and other objects will become apparent hereinafter and in the claims.